“Media Sampler” is a series of posts, where I make a selection of articles, videos and podcasts that I recently came across in the Internets and found interesting!

Articles

  • Want to Be a Better Scientist? Take an Improv Class by Catherine Bartlett

    This is something that I wanted to try since I was a grad student, but unfortunately haven’t managed to do it yet. The article makes a great case for the benefits of Improv classes for scientists. The purpose of such classes is to “loosen up” the participants when they are engaged in public speaking and help them connect authentically with the audience. That way, any message will get across more easily. Another important aspect of Improv classes is that they teach active listening, which is an essential tool for being a great collaborator.

    Every scientist should take a page out of NASA’s playbook: be funny to further your project, your funding and even your career.

  • Using a ‘virtual slime mold’ to design a subway network less prone to disruption by Tyler Irving

    Here is a very cool article about adaptive network design. The researchers created computer simulations based on a known slime mold called physarum polycephalum to create cheaper and faster networks. One example was the Toronto subway system. The mold-designed network created a system with the same traveling time for the passengers but much less susceptible to disruptions. You can read the technical details of their work in their paper.

    Another advantage of our model is that it can generate the attractor nodes itself, without the need for designer input. For example, you can upload the population density of a real neighborhood or city, and then have it determine the network nodes that might best serve this population. -Raphael Kay

  • Huxley’s Warning by Lauren Reiff

    In this article Reiff is discussing the similarities and differences of the two most well-known authors of dystopia in the 20th century, George Orwell (1984) and Aldous Huxley (A Brave New World). The way our societies are during the first quarter of the 21st century shows that both writers’ predictions were correct. However, Huxley seems to be more correct.

    Huxley showcased a society wherein the masses were unnervingly docile. Soothed by modern pleasures and unbothered by the great statist sweep, Huxley’s vision was that of a society mollified and surprisingly amenable to control.

Video

Podcast